experience. Multitudes of the baptized are unholy ; many of the unbaptized are sanctified and saved.
How then is it true that baptism washes away sin, unites us to Christ, and secures salvation? The an- swer again is, that this is true of baptism in the same sense that it is true of the word. God is pleased to connect the benefits of redemption with the believing reception of the truth. And he is pleased to connect these same benefits with the believing reception of baptism. That is, as the Spirit works with and by the truth, so he works with and by baptism, in eommuni- cating the blessings of the covenant of grace. There- fore, as we are said to be saved by the word, with equal propriety we are said to be saved by baptism ; though baptism without faith is as of little effect as is the word of God to unbelievers. The scriptural doc- trine concerning baptism, according to the Reformed churches is—1. That it is a divine institution. 2. That it is one of the conditions of salvation. “ Whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,” Mark 16, 16. It has, however, the necessity of precept, not the neces- sity of a means sine gua non. It is in this respect analogous to confession. ‘ With the heart man be- lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth con- fession is made unto salvation,” Rom. 10,10. And also to circumcision. God said, “The uncircumcised male child—should be cut off from his people,” Gen. 17, 14. Yet children dying before the eighth day were surely not cut off from heaven. And the apostle teaches that if an uncircumcised man kept the law,
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“his uncircumcision was counted to him for circum- cision,” Rom. 3, 26. 3. Baptism is a means of grace, that is, a channel through which the Spirit confers grace ; not always, not upon all recipients, nor is it the only channel, nor is it designed as the ordinary means of regeneration. Faith and repentance are the gifts of the Spirit and fruits of regeneration, and yet they are required as conditions of baptism. Consequently the Scriptures contemplate regeneration as preceding baptism. But if faith, to which all the benefits of redemption are promised, precedes baptism, how can those benefits be said to be conferred, in any case, through baptism? Just as a father may give an estate to his son, and afterwards convey it to him formally by a deed. Besides, the benefits of redemption, the remission of sin, the gift of the Spirit, and the merits of the Redeemer, are not conveyed to the soul once for all. They are reconveyed and appropriated on every new act of faith, and on every new believing reception of the sacraments. The sinner coming to baptism in the exercise of repentance and faith, takes God the Father to be his Father; God the Son, to be his Saviour ; and God the Holy Ghost to be his Sancti- fier, and his word to be the rule of his faith and prac- tice. The administrator then, in the name and by the authority of God, washes him with water as a sign of the cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ, and of sanctification by the Holy Spirit; and as a seal to God’s promise to grant him those blessings on the con- dition of the repentance and faith thus publicly avowed.